Of Devils and Bishops
by ruwish
Summary: When Shirou thought he was about to die in the war, a miracle happened. He was dragged into a new world to serve under his new king. Unknowingly, he just got himself into another tournament with more troubles following closely behind. (on haitus)
1. New Life

**Fate/Stay Night X Highschool DXD: Of Devils and Bishops**

 **Author's Notes:** Hey guys! This is my first attempt on writing a crossover between two animes. Prior to that, I read a lot of other F/SN stories and crossovers. Thanks to the amazing stories from Gabriel Blessing and other fantastic stories, I decided to write a one myself since I am also a big fan of the F/SN franchise. I then came across 'Demon Lord's champion', which inspired me to write a crossover between the two animes. For the story, I will be using Heaven's Feel route with some Unlimited Blade Works in between since my understanding of Heaven's Feel is only limited to the wiki page. As for DXD, I only read the light novel up to volume 11. Due to the ridiculous plot shield and the incompetence of the main character, cough Issei cough, I decided to stop reading. If I make any mistakes, please feel free to point it out for me, and I will make appropriate changes. Thanks for reading!

 **PS: I'm looking for a beta.**

 **Chapter 1: New life**

"Shirou! No…No! Please don't die. Stay with me!"

Slowly, my vision began to blur, and I knew it was time. I had tried. I had tried my best, but I guess with my death, I was still unable to protect the ones I cared deeply. Unlike Archer, I did not regret my own actions. All I ever wanted was the smiles and happiness that radiated from the people around me. The cheerful atmosphere was enough to motivate me to keep going and keep on pursuing my own ideal.

I still remembered Kiritsugu's smile ten years ago after he saved me from the fire in Fuyuki: It was genuine. The smile he held was as if he was released from a heavy burden, and the happiness somehow shined into my empty heart. That was when I decided to become a hero to save everyone. No matter how naïve and difficult the path was, I would never regret my decision.

I guess I was wrong. I didn't regret my course of action, but the fact that I failed to save my friends from danger. Death was the inevitable consequence, and I would gladly accept it.

"I'm sorry…I…"

Too late. My consciousness slipped away before I could finish my goodbye. Yeah… They were probably really pissed at me, but I mean this was the hero's path– _my_ path. I relaxed my body as I felt myself leaving this world, leaving my friends behind.

I guess I was caught off guard at my first sight of what was supposedly hell. My image of hell was like that of textbook: red sky, hellfire, and tortured screaming. Instead, the scenery in front of me completely blew my mind. There was no way that the color white could resemble anything I knew about hell. In fact, the whiteness of my surroundings were so intense that it forced me to blink multiple times in order to adjust my dilated pupils. So here were the two questions in my mind: Where am I? Am I dead?

"No, don't worry. You are not dead or at least not yet I suppose." I jumped a little at the sudden revelation of another presence. I quickly turned to face the source of the sound, but to my dismay, no one was there. "If I were you, I will not bother looking around. You won't be able to find me."

"Who are you?" I asked carefully. The voice did not sound anything like Archer or any Heroic Spirit that I came across. While the anonymous voice could possibly be Alaya, the thought was quickly dismissed, as no one really knew the true identity of this enigma, well, maybe besides Archer. But even then I'm not sure if he really had.

"Who am I is not important right now. What matters the most is your health right now," it said with a concerned voice. I frowned slightly at the confession. What was it referring to? What was happening to my body?

"What do you mean by that?" I asked confusingly.

"You are not dead yet as of right now, but if we don't act right now, you will die for real."

"Wait what?" I still couldn't understand what it was talking about. What did it mean by 'not dead yet', and 'I will die for real'. From what little I knew and remembered, I was critically wounded and was, with certainty, dead.

"You are still alive, but dying slowly." Oh fantastic, so I guess I was still alive. _Great._ Rin would definitely kill me now.

At the thought of that talented mage, I could feel a migraine forming in my head. She was already unhappy when I chose to sacrifice myself to protect them, let alone dying in the end. However, that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that I was still alive after taking a fatal blow, so I could not and did not want to imagine what Rin would do to me upon my return. Actually, now that I thought about it, I would prefer to face Rin's wrath than stay dead. I mean she would definitely shoot some Gandr at me and call me a baka few times, in the end, she would still be glad at my return. And so would I. But still, I couldn't ignore the voice in the back of my head that yelled " _Scary tsunderes!"_

"So what are you trying to tell me?" If I could see the face behind that voice, I was most definitely sure that a sly smile would be there to greet me.

"Ah…Well, I have a deal to make with you." I nodded to gesture the voice to continue. "I know a lot about you, including your dream to become a hero. Right now, I am going to give you another chance to live and to save lives."

"And what is the other part of the deal?" I asked cautiously. I didn't want to miss any vital information on such tempting offer. For all I knew, it could simply be a trap to trick me selling my soul or some other crazy things you see on T.V. everyday.

"You will be reincarnated into a devil." Wait a second. What did I just hear? Reincarnate into a devil? I was only joking about selling my soul to the devil earlier, so why was this happening to me now.

"And just why will I do such thing? And what makes you thi-"

"Shirou Emiya," the voice interrupted me. "I know what you are capable of. You might not believe anything I say including the existence of devils, but I don't blame you. In the near future, a war is going to erupt and it is up to you to minimize the casualties or even stop the war itself. Besides, aren't you curious about your sister?"

I was in a deep thought, debating whether or not I should accept this offer. If becoming a devil meant that I could potentially stop a war and save thousands of lives, then going with my ideal, I would accept it without a second thought. However, at the mention of Illya, my head perked up as my face was covered with a deep scowl.

"What do you want from her? Don't you dare-" Once again, I was interrupted before I could finish my sentence.

"Calm down. Illya is in a similar position as she can at most live for another month. However, she can be saved once she reincarnates into a devil. So it is up to you now. Emiya Shirou, by accepting my offer, not only you could save thousands of lives, but also save your sister and lover. What do you say?"

Honestly, I was going to accept the offer anyway because I could finally finish off what I started. But the fact that this involved Illya solidified my decision. No matter what, I would not lose them even if it meant to become a devil.

"I will accept your offer. But explain everything about the devils to me."

"You will find out everything after you wake up. I will deliver you to your master." The voice replied cheekily. Why can't people, or devils in this case, be clear for at least one time? They always leave out some important information, claiming that answers are not given but earned through self-discovery. I suppressed a sigh and nodded my head in agreement.

I guess I was following Archer's path in a way. He joined the Counter Force in hope of saving people. Instead, all he received was regret in the end as he was basically the janitor that cleaned up the mess that humans made. He saw through the true nature of humanity and realized that his ideal of becoming a hero was simply pointless.

Archer and I were similar in many ways, after all, he was my twisted future self. But there was one thing that separated the two of us: regret. I chose to become a devil like how Archer contracted with the Counter Force to become a guardian, however, I knew I would never regret my own action. I would stick to my ideal till the very end and save as many as I could.

"We will meet again in the future, as of now," the voice said, and I swore I heard the sound of fingers snapping. "I will wake you up. Good luck Emiya Shirou!"

Before I could ask anymore, the brightness of the room began to dim as darkness slowly crawled back into my vision. My body began to stir, and I fluttered my eyes opened, which may be a mistake on my part. What greeted me was a pair of big and curious purple eyes that was only inches away from my face. Swiftly, I rolled to the side and got up into a defensive stance. _Or I tried to._

My muscles ached in defiance once I tried to do any sort of movement. The shirt I wore was torn and full of bloodstains, but the wounds I received were fully closed, thanks to the healing ability of Avalon. Except, my left arm felt weird, or maybe different. Ah…right. This wasn't my arm to begin with.

During a battle against Saber Alter and True Assassin, Archer's core was critically damaged and was mortally wounded. The decision of killing Sakura or saving her came up, and in the end, I chose the latter. Consequently, my decision made Archer abandon his wish to kill me. Instead, he chose to have Kotomine graft his left arm onto me, where I lost it while protecting Illya from Zuken's assault.

"Ah…so that's what it meant by slowly dying." I muttered to myself quietly. Before I lost my consciousness, I was badly wounded, and if not for Avalon's immense healing power, I would've really died. However, that wasn't the real reason I was slowly dying. With the new arm I received from Archer, I was able to access all the accumulated knowledge and history from him. But with great power, came with great prices.

To begin, it should be impossible to graft a Servant's arm onto a normal human being due to the immense power that a Servant possessed. I was lucky. Since Archer was basically my future self, the end result of the transplant was a success. But whenever I chose to access the knowledge embedded in Archer's left arm, the invasion speed of the foreign arm would increase and eventually take over my body.

So how was this going to be fixed permanently? Also, who was this girl in front of me and where was Illya? At the thought of Illya, a feeling of anxiety and anticipation washed over me. Could she really be saved too?

"Ahem," the dark haired girl in front of me cleared her throat, dragging me away from my thoughts. I guess that was good, since I ended up with more questions than I first started. "Are you Emiya Shirou?"

I turned my attention to the girl in front of me and quickly analyzed her. She seemed to be a year younger or perhaps the same age as me judging by the high school uniform she was wearing. Her violet eyes were those of dangerous and calculative, and with those glasses, sharp was the first word that came into my mind when describing her. If she was truly my future master, then I had a really good feeling about this.

I nodded back at her and stretched out my arm. "And you are -?"

"Sona Sitri" The glasses girl in front of me replied. "I was told to come here to reincarnate two humans into devils."

"Where is Illya?" I got up to my feet and asked while grabbing onto her shoulder. I had to make sure that Illya was still alive, or at the very least, let me see her body.

She winced slightly at my grab and pointed behind her, which in return, I flashed her a grateful look before I slowly limped past her.

I almost let out an unmanly squeal when the little white haired girl tackled me with full force that led me to sit down once again.

"Onii-chan! I found you!" Illya said excitingly while hugging me tightly. I had to suppress a grimace when she crushed my injured body like that. Needlessly to say, I was really glad to see her alive. I glanced at Sona, which she gave me a small smile before she looked away, opting to give us some privacy.

"Hey Illya," I ruffled her white hair and began. "Do you know why we are here?"

Illya broke apart and shook her head in return. "Someone told me that I could save you, so then I just accepted its offer," she said happily.

I let out a sigh and gestured at Sona, who was currently standing few feet away, back facing us. "I guess we can only find out after we talk to her."

With that, I made my way back to the dark haired girl with Illya trailing behind me. Upon our approach, Sona turned around to face us with her arms crossed. Before I could ask her any question, she simply raised her hand into a halt and began to speak.

"You might be wondering what is going on," Sona began as she eyed both of us expectantly. "I am looking to complete my peerage for the future participation in the Rating Games."

Wait…what? What was she talking about right now? Peerage? Rating Game? My confusion only increased as she tried to throw out some more information.

"What my source told me is that the three of you made a deal, am I correct?" Sona asked us while adjusting her glasses. Both Illya and I nodded in agreements. "However, I do not know anything about you two, so I'm not sure if the two of my bishop pieces will suit you."

"What are those evil pieces that you are talking about?" I asked confusingly.

At my question, Sona rubbed her forehead and sighed. "Right, I totally forgot about it. This is just like chess, where a full peerage consists of a king, a queen, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, and pawn(s)."

While I may not be an expert at chess, I at least understood the basic rules of it. However, what I didn't understand was the function of each piece. I narrowed my eyebrows and motioned her to continue.

"Well, I am the king piece in case you didn't know. Queen possess all the characteristics of rooks, knights, and bishops, in other words, it is the most balanced piece. Rook simply gains monstrous strength. Knight has low defense, but in exchange, it gains agility."

So the system that the devil had was similar to the Grail System after all. To put it simple, an evil piece was a catalyst for the master to summon a desirable Servant. The only difference was the fact that the master, or the king in this case, held control up to fourteen servants/pieces.

A Saber class was equivalent to the queen piece as the stats were considered as balanced. Needlessly to say, a rook was basically Berserker, minus the Mad Enhancement of course. Lancer and Rider could both qualify as a knight piece, which left us bishop as the remaining piece…

"And lastly, for bishop," Sona started to explain while playing with the two chess pieces that seemed to be bishops in her hand. "It enhances magical skills, which include wide range of spells, such as healing, defense, and offense."

Ah, so bishop was Caster. Well, I was sure that Illya would qualify for the bishop piece, but me on the other hand… I was certain that a queen piece would be best suited for me, putting into account that my fighting style was similar to that of Archer's: Suicidal.

"What about pawn?" Surprisingly, it was Illya that posed the question.

"They are slightly different from other pieces." At the declaration, my eyebrow rose, and I gestured her to continue. "Pawn has the ability to promote into a queen, rook, bishop, or knight only in the enemy territory. Besides that, they have no additional stats gain. However, do not underestimate a pawn as they can potentially be as powerful as any other piece."

With queen's enhancement, I would have power over the rook piece, which could possibly make my defense impenetrable with my own Reinforcement. The agility and enhancement of magical spells provided by the knight and bishop pieces would greatly benefit me as well.

The downside was the fact that the queen piece only possessed a small fraction of every other evil piece, which in terms made the piece itself balanced and not specialized in a certain category.

Pawn would not be a bad choice as I would be able to promote myself to the best-suited piece depending on my opponents and terrain, but only if I managed to cross the enemy territory. And knowing this specific trait of pawn, successfully promoting myself would definitely be challenging.

Just like all chess games, pawns were usually the sacrificial pieces for the future maneuver of other pieces, and I did not fancy that kind of playstyle. Though playing the sacrificial role somewhat fit me, dying first would not allow me to save anyone in the end.

So these were my options: bishop or pawn. Before I could make up my mind, Sona spoke up again.

"However, I don't think I have enough pawn pieces to reincarnate you, assuming you are as strong as my source said." Sona told me. Well that narrowed down my option. "But your abilities are unknown to me, so I can't really use up two of my pieces without seeing what you have with my eyes."

Fair enough. After all, just like the Grail War, it was only reasonable for the Master to understand the Servant's power and limits in order to plan for future battles or avoid formidable opponents. Plus, it would only be logical for a bishop to already possess any sort of magical traits, since the purpose of the piece was to enhance all magical spells.

Illya was already a powerful magus due to the fact that she was a child of a human and homunculus, which granted her more magic circuits than a normal human being. By becoming Berserker's Master, her body was modified to maximize the amount of circuits she had, making it possible for her to control the mad Servant.

Me on the other hand could also qualify as a bishop, since I was also considered as a magus. However, to compare Illya's talent and potential in magic to mine would be like comparing Heaven to Earth–the disparity was just too large. Unlike most magi, I specialized in two types of magic…

I gave Sona a meaningful nod before I walked toward the nearest tree and grabbed a fallen tree branch from the ground.

 _Trace on… Composition Analyzed… Reinforcing…_

With a branch in my hand, I walked past Illya and then Sona, who shot me a confused look, which I returned with a smug smile of mine, before I stopped about three feet away from the tree. Looking at my target carefully, I lifted my arm and threw the reinforced tree branch straight pass the two girls.

A somewhat surprised expression was shown from Sona when the tree branch managed to penetrate the trunk of the tree, leaving a clean and hollow hole behind its path. Probably what surprised her the most was the fact that the branch I threw was still in one piece. Illya, on the other hand, was smiling and clapping her hands at my small performance. "Onii-chan is good!"

It seemed like my small demonstration did not please Sona as much as I expected considering that she concealed her surprised expression so quickly and was now replaced by an unimpressed look.

"Honestly, that wasn't too impressive," she said with a shrug. Behind her emotionless face, I could somewhat hear the disappointment behind it. Even though it was well concealed, I could tell that she was expecting something more from me. I guess I would give her more.

Without any other word, I walked back to the tree and took a close look at it. "Diameter about sixty centimeters," I muttered to myself. "Hm…this should be a piece of cake."

Once again, Sona looked extremely confused at my action, but her confusion was quickly replaced with an awe expression.

I punched the tree with my reinforced fist. And I blew it up.

The power behind my punch was almost as strong as those of weaker Servants. The impact was able to smash the tree in front of me into splinters that flew in all directions. The root of the tree was completely lifted from the ground, living a nothing but dirt in the empty hole. Right on cue, the leaves glided down from the branches slowly, giving off a dramatic atmosphere.

I glanced back just in time to catch the gaping look from Sona, who obviously didn't expect any of this to happen. Illya, on the other hand, was clapping even louder with an expression like a child who just received a Christmas present from Santa.

Casually, I walked passed the shocked devil and returned standing next to Illya. "So how was that?" I asked with a smug face. "Does that exceed your expectations?"

Apparently, she was too shocked to answer, so I had to snap my fingers loudly to bring her out of her trance. "Y-Yes," she managed to stutter the word out. "I think that will be just fine." She then shook her head and pointed at Illya. "Well, it's your turn."

I tried to suppress a grin on my face as Illya looked at me confusingly. "Oni-chan," she said while tilting her head to the side with a finger on her lips. "What am I suppose to do?"

I thought for a bit and finally came to a conclusion. "Well, why don't you just create those bird familiars for now. I think they are impressive enough," I patted her head and told her. "Ah… feel free to create some explosions," I added in the end before she created some space between the three of us.

I then turned to Sona and said, "While we are at it, why don't you show us some of your moves too. So in the future, we will be able to work out a battle plan effectively."

The nod from Sona meant that she at least understood where I was coming from. After all, if we were to be in her peerage, trust was the first thing to establish as we would be working together for quite awhile. "This is just a demonstration of power, so don't kill each other," I told the two girls when Sona walked up to face Illya. Well, to be exact, that was actually for Illya, since she tend to get all worked up when fighting. I looked at the two of them again and signaled the spar to begin.

I was really curious at what kind of magic Sona uses. The only thing that got me worried was Illya. She was easily considered as the strongest magus, even stronger than Rin. If she decided to go all out, Sona would most likely receive fatal injuries. But then again, I knew nothing about the power of devils, so my only option was to wait and see. If the situation was deemed necessary, I would have to interfere the fight to save Sona.

I shook my head to bring myself back to reality to watch the battle before me unfold. Like I instructed Illya earlier, she pulled off two strands of her hair and created the high-performance bird familiars, Zelle.

Sona on the other hand, didn't even look amazed as she was focusing on channeling her own spells. Once she gathered enough power I assumed, she raised her hand in the air and made four hawks that were transformed from water. The move itself didn't look too impressive compared to that of Illya. There was no way that it could match Illya's attack, but I decided to watch till the very end, since everything I just thought of was simply made from my own assumptions.

Once Sona was ready, she immediately began her attacks. With a swing, the hawks she made flew towards Illya. The homunculus gave a swing of her own and ordered her familiars to retaliate.

A small explosion erupted in mid air as the two creations clashed with each other. Like I predicted earlier, Illya's Zelles overpowered Sona's attack easily as the hawks she made was nothing but puddles of water right now.

She didn't look surprised by the fail attempt to strike down her opponent, instead, she was already channeling her next spell. On the other side, Illya didn't give Sona the time to finish before she ordered her familiars to strike.

Luckily for Sona, her spell was ready just when the birds were almost in range to attack. Shots of water flew out from her fingertip, forcing Illya's familiar to dodge, which bought herself some time to quickly summon a hawk to shield the attack. She then conjured a lion immediately to pounce at Illya, hoping that her attack would catch the opponent by surprise.

Sona's attacks were relentless, but the power behind each spell was not strong enough to really pose a threat. The lion she made earlier was easily dismissed by one of the Zelle as the magical familiar shot a beam of magic to destroy it. Illya then raised her arm and transformed one of the familiar into a sword, which surprised Sona greatly. Without any delay, the sword was shot forward with a speed that could possibly rival that of Archer. I palmed my face at this. Didn't I tell her to be careful?

I was about to jump into the fight to save Sona, but what she was able to do next surprised me greatly. Using the puddles on the ground from her previous spells, she desperately created a water shield that was strong enough to temporarily slow down the attack from Illya. However, that wasn't enough to stop the magical flying blade. Right when the shield depleted, Sona was able to roll out of the harm and was now staring at the white blade that could've killed her.

Even though she managed to get out unscarred, the pace of the battle was in Illya's control, which meant that there was no point of continuing. After all, this was only a small spar to demonstrate each other's abilities. And one last thing: I wanted to conceal some of our powers for future.

"Alright, I think this is enough," I walked forward and told the two girls to cease fire.

Illya turned to look at me with a small pout on her face. "But oni-chan, I was just having fun!"

"I'm sure you will have fun later on," I told her dryly. "You almost killed her." I then turned to look at Sona, who had a hand under her chin, reviewing the small duel for sure.

Despite the fact that Sona clearly lost to Illya, I didn't look down at her a single bit. In all honesty, I was quite impressed, even though I knew that Illya was holding back greatly. Considering that Illya was a first rated magus that was more powerful than Rin in certain aspects, being uninjured and blocking all damage throughout the whole fight was really impressive.

"Don't worry about the loss," I said to the devil. "We won't be fighting each other anyway. But I want to know more about the devils and this world."

"Yes, I will definitely fill you in on that," she nodded at my request.

"So how was that little assessment?" I asked smugly at her. She let out a heavy sigh and said, "Yea, I think the both of you will be good for my peerage…maybe a bit too good." I was sure that the last part was not directed to us, so I let it slip and nodded gratefully.

"Like I said earlier, I will take you under my peerage and begin the process of reincarnation," Sona said while displaying the two chest pieces in her hand. "I, Sona Sitri, hereby ask you:" As soon as she started the chant, a red magic circle appeared below Illya and my feet. "Emiya Shirou and Illyasviel Von Einzbern, will you swear upon your life to be faithful and loyal to the Sitri Clan and support your king in any possible way?" Both Illya and I nodded at the vow. "Then you shall become my bishops and rejoice in your new life as devils!"

 _In front of him was a wasteland, filled with nothing but swords and dead bodies. It wasn't his first time to stand alone in the mess he made, after all, he was all alone. It was his job to save. It was also his job to clean up. To save meant to kill, and he would gladly accept his own fate. It was his dream to become a hero of justice._

 _He had been summoned to the battlefield over and over again to save and to protect the humanity. He regretted. In the end, the person he saved betrayed him, and he was killed. He then finally realized how pointless his dream was: nothing but full of betrayal and endless pain._

 _He wanted to escape. He wanted it to end. But he couldn't. And so, he walked a lonely road that was full of bloodshed and betrayal._


	2. Never Trust a Devil

**Author's Notes:** _Here is the new chapter! First of all, thanks for all the reviews, favs, and follows. I really appreciate it. There are somethings that I want to clarify from last chapter. I'm not quite sure about Sona's ability since in the anime, it was focus mainly on the Gremory's. With that being said, I am just making up her powers right now. The fight between Illya was meant to be a beatdown. Right now, Sona is not strong enough.. Illya, being Illya, of course would stomp her. But I ensure you that Sona will become stronger later on. Another thing is that I purposely didn't let Shirou use his tracing power. Anyone knows why? hehe :D To people wondering about Sona's original bishops from the light novel/anime. Well, let's just say they got replaced, and Sona got herself an upgrade. My reason being Sona is a tactician and thus she wants the best pieces._

 _Now on to the chapter. This chapter follows canon mostly since Shirou and Illya haven't been in this universe long enough to make any major changes, but in this chapter, there is a MAJOR turning point and blows the canon out of the stratosphere. I know y'all don't like it if the fic is basically a rewrite of the original plot, so while this shows a very important scene in canon, it will also set up the stage for very drastic changes in the future. Also, before you guys rage at me for referring Raynare as Yuuma Amano, remember that Shirou never got a chance to know her real name. Anyway, enjoy! Feel free to drop down questions, comments, concerns, and suggestions in the review!_

 _ **P.S: Still looking for a beta**_

 **Chapter 2: Never Trust a Devil**

"Wakey, wakey onii-chan," Illya said while shaking my body.

"Come on," I groaned into my pillow. "Just five more minutes please."

"No, onii-chan," Illya declared while placing both her arms at her waist in a dignifying way. "You've been saying that for the past hour."

I was not going to give in just yet. "Why are we getting up so early today?" I asked while tugging on to the blankets even more to cover up my entire head. The morning sunray was nice, but nothing was more valuable than my sleep, and no one was going to make me come out of my comfortable blankets. Still, I didn't seem to understand the change as I was always a morning person.

"Because," she began as I could sense the excitement in her voice. "We are going to school today." Naturally, I groaned in frustration and ignored her. Seeing that I had no intention to get up, Illya said mischievously, "Ok then, you leave me no choice." Uh oh. What was that devilish little girl planning now?

I held on to my blanket dearly, but to my surprise, nothing happened. I let out a small sigh. I guess she finally gave up and decided to just go to school herself. It was only yesterday that I became a devil. And it was only yesterday when Sona told me that we needed to attend to school. As a student president of Kouh Academy, she would not allow any student to slack off, especially her own peerage. Illya and I were told to meet her at the student council during lunch, where she would explain the general guidelines of being a devil.

Well, I guess that wasn't happening. _Or so I thought._

With a sound similar to 'kyaa', Illya grabbed the edge of my blanket and yanked it as hard as possible, exposing me to the cool of the room.

"Illya!" I yelled at her with frustration. "Did you really have to do that?"

"Yes I do," she said with her arms crossed and head lifted up slightly in a proud manner. "Since onii-chan doesn't listen, I had to do something or else we will be late."

I sighed and rubbed my forehead slowly. I guess I would have to admit defeat this time. Her technique to get me out of bed was far too advanced for me to come up with an appropriate counter yet.

"Ok ok," I said to the bouncing girl in front of me. Seriously, why was she so excited to go to school? "But first, let me make breakfast."

"But onii-chan," Illya protested with a pout on her face. "We won't have enough time. We will be late!"

I shrugged at her and smirked a little. "Breakfast or no school." My tone was absolute, giving her no room to argue. She realized it too, so she continued on with her pout and refused to look at me.

I couldn't help but let out a small smile. _This is going to be good._

*Scene Break*

"So," I began happily. "How does it taste?"

Either Illya was still mad at me or the omelette I made was simply too good, considering that she ignored me completely. I decided to go with the latter thought, since Rin acted like the hungry girl in front of me basically everyday. It had soon became a sacred rule to not have any conversation over the table when I cooked.

I took a look at the clock. _7:20._ Class was going to start in ten minutes, so if we didn't hurry, we would most definitely be late, and the last thing I want was getting lectured by Sona on how irresponsible we were.

"Hey Illya," I began. "You better hurry, or else we will be late to class." At the mention of 'late' and 'class', Illya looked up at me with shock and started to scarf the remaining food with an inhuman speed.

"Done!" With a sigh of satisfaction, she set the plate on the table. I smiled at her and took the plate to the sink. "Onii-chan, make breakfast tomorrow," Illya pleaded at me. "That was delicious!" I sighed at her request. Didn't someone want to skip breakfast earlier?

*Scene Break*

"Hi, I'm Emiya Shirou. From now on I will be under your care," I said to my future classmates that were seated in front of me.

Turns out, we barely made it on time. I managed to locate the correct room, slide the door open, and find myself standing in front of a surprised bunch when the bell rang. Since Illya and I were not the same age, we parted once we stepped onto the school ground where she went to find her own classroom.

The school itself was a lot bigger than the one I attended. Last night, I asked Sona for a school map and studied it carefully. I had memorized the locations for most of the important places, such as the student council room and my homeroom. That was probably the only reason why I was able to find the right place in such a rush.

Like my old school, there were plenty of clubrooms. What made me curious was the old school building. It was really far and isolated from the new school building, and Sona had specifically told Illya and I not to venture over there. I began to wonder, why?

"Emiya-kun," the teacher smiled at me. "There is an empty seat right next to Hyoudou-kun. Why don't you make yourself comfortable there."

With a nod of thanks, I walked to my newly assigned seat. It was next to the window in the very back row. The guy sitting in front of me immediately turned around right when I sat down.

"Hey new student," he began with a smile. "Emiya Shirou right? My name is Hyoudou Issei." I eyed the boy in front of me carefully. He had messy brown hair that stuck up all over the place. His red shirt was left untucked with a gray jacket on top, and the smile he flashed me radiated with utter confidence.

I returned a small smile of my own, already taking a liking of the guy in front of me. Even though he seemed to be the complete opposite of the Ryuudou Issei I knew, being all outgoing and verbose wasn't that bad either.

The class went by quickly, mostly due to the fact that I wasn't really paying much attention to the sensei. I had learned all the materials that were being taught back when I was still in Fuyuki. So instead of listening attentively like a good student, I let my mind wandered as I stared out of the window. My imagination took over as I started to fantasize a devil's life. I was still foreign to the whole concept of devils, and the system that they had, particularly the Rating Game. But that could be saved for later as right now my goal was to study its cultural, history, and rules first. Also, I wanted to clarify some myths that I learned about the devils in the past with Sona, for instance, things like crosses, holy water, and sins.

I was tore away from my thoughts when the bell rang as all the students got up from their chairs to either take a trip to the bathroom or simply hang out with their friends. Since I was new here, I had no idea what to do besides sitting at my desk, patiently waiting for the next class to start. I attempted to close my eyes, allowing myself to rest a bit, but my battle senses told me that someone was staring at me.

I cracked an eye open to find that Issei and his two other friends were looking at me with a mischievous grin. God knows what they were thinking, and I didn't want to know, so I closed my eye again, completely ignoring their potentially malicious acts.

That was definitely a bad idea on my part. _Definitely._

"Hey Emiya-san," a familiar voice said behind me cheekily. I allowed myself to open my eyes once again, and like I thought, Issei and his friends were standing around my desk.

"Hey, Hyoudou-san," I greeted back in a friendly tone.

He frowned at me and said, "Just call me Issei from now on." I nodded at his request and said the same thing back to him. "Shirou for me then."

With a happy smile, he began to introduce his friends to me. "This is Matsuda," he said while pointing at the one with a buzzed cut. "He is in the photo club and is also known as the 'Perverted Baldy'. And this is Motohama," now pointing at the one with glasses. "He is known as the 'Perverted Glasses' because he has the special ability to calculate a female body's measurement at first glance. We are here to invite you to join our group."

Uh what…? Nicknames such as 'Perverted Baldy' and 'Perverted Glasses'? Why did I have a bad feeling about this.

Before I could voice my own opinion, Issei began to explain the interests and goals of his group. "First off, our main mission is to peek when girls are changing. But don't worry, since you are a new member, we will let you have the privilege of peeking first," he added quickly when he saw that my eyes had narrowed.

Next to him, Matsuda protested out loud. "But Issei…" Before he could voiced out his opinion in this matter, Issei waved his hand and dismissed him. "Shush! this is a welcome gift for our new member. Anyway," he turned his attention back to me. "We also share 'goodies' to each other. Ah, let me show you."

At the mention of 'goodies', the trio all had a perverted looking face on them. The bad vibe that I got from this trio only intensified when I saw Issei reaching for his bag.

"No!" I said loudly, frantically standing up and backing away from them.

"But Shirou," Issei said with a perverted smile. "Yesterday, we spent like all of our savings to get this master piece. We can watch it together after school."

"No, but thanks for the offer," I said while sprinting out to the door. This was a disaster. The first day of school, I was approached by three perverts, offering me to join their friend group. Not only that, they even offered to peek the girl's bathroom and watch porn together. What the hell was-

My thoughts were interrupted when found myself running into someone. Sounds of gasping were coming from every direction yet I still found myself oblivious to the situation. Was it because I bumped into a girl? Wasn't this sort of situation only found in love comedies? By the Root, this better not cascade into a whole boatload of shit and misunderstandings. If that was the case then I apologize, and to begin with, it was an accident. However, the constant murmurs suggested otherwise.

"Oh my, is that really her?" A voice behind me whispered in surprised.

"Yea, it's Rias senpai!" Another voice behind me said with excitement. "The rumors about her beauty is definitely true."

Ok. I was missing something very important here. The first thing I noticed from the girl in front of me was the thigh length crimson long hair with loose bangs covering her forehead. The blue eyes and pale white skin of hers also stood out, since you didn't really see those in Japan. She seemed to be extremely popular among the student body since everyone was basically pointing and whispering quietly about her.

But there was something off about her. With my sensitive nose, I could smell royalty, passion, and destruction from her. Even though it wasn't as strong as that of Berserker, the amount of power she possessed at her age was quite impressive. She kind of reminded me of Sona, but stronger in a different perspective. Sona felt like the water in a dam; calm, but once released, the power would be overwhelming. The girl in front of me felt wild, as if nothing could contain her power, just like an untamed beast.

"What the - Shirou!" a voice half yelled, bringing me back to reality. I half turned and found myself facing a shocked looking Issei. Unknowingly, both the girl and I were having some kind of staring contest as we were both studying each other carefully. I shook my head and broke off the eye contact before I apologized. "Sorry for bumping into you. I wasn't paying attention. You're not hurt right?"

Still studying me with those blue eyes, she gave me a half smile and said, "It's alright. I wasn't looking either." After that, she turned around and walked away as if nothing happened. _Yeah… definitely like a princess._

"Shirou," Issei rushed to me and asked. "Do you know who that is?" I shooked my head at his question, which he returned with a facepalm. At his side, Motohama was unable to contain his excitement,so instead, he supplied me with the answer.

"That was Rias Gremory," he said with a dreamy tone. "B99-W58-H90. Such amazing measurements." I had to suppress a sigh when he said that outloud. To avoid any more awkwardness, I turned to Issei and asked, "So is she like popular?"

Issei shot me an unbelievable look and half yelled. "She is like the most attractive girl in the school. Well, Akeno-senpai too. So I guess that makes two of them."

"But did you feel that?" I asked the trio, referring to the destructive power rolling off of her. They shot me a weird look and asked. "What are you talking about? Oh! You mean those - "

"No. Never mind." Before they could go any further, I decided to simply cut them off. Something about that girl was not right. However, my thoughts were once again interrupted when the bell rang again, and with a sigh, I walked passed the crowd and went back to the classroom.

*Scene Break*

"Ah here it is," I muttered to myself after sprinting my way to the room that I was suppose to be at ten minutes ago.

"You're late," a voice called right after I entered the room. I shrugged and sat down in an empty chair. Truthfully, I was once again stalled by the Perverted Trio when they invited me to peek the girl's changing room, which I rejected right away. Even though I dismissed their invitation, they still insisted on watching the rated R film that Issei brought today, which I also declined.

"Onii-chan," Illya pouted at me. "I don't like school."

At her statement, my eyebrow raised. "What happened to all the energy in the morning?"

"Well," she began, still with a pout face. "School is fun, but I don't like one of my classmates." Right after she said it, she sticked her tongue out and made 'bleh' sound.

I chuckled lightly and patted her on the head. "Now, now. Remember to be friendly ok?" She reluctantly nodded her head, before I turned my attention towards the source of the voice from earlier.

"Hello Sona," I began cheerfully. "What are we doing here?"

Still glaring at me, she said, "Besides introducing you to my peerage, I have something to announce."

I nodded my head and motioned her to continue. "This is my queen, Tsubaki Shinra," pointing at the girl with split bangs and glasses that was currently doing some paper work. At the mention of her name, she looked at us briefly and nodded before she resumed back to her duty.

"This is my knight, Tomoe Meguri." The auburn haired girl gave a big smile and waved at both Illya and I. I politely waved back and gave her a smile of my own.

"Sona told us about what happened," Tomoe said with awe, probably referring to the little 'test' that we had. "I will be looking forward to work with you!"

"And this is Tsubasa Yura, my rook," she said, now pointing at the blue haired girl that was sitting across of Tsubaki. She, too, was doing some paperwork that Sona assigned, so she only glanced up to give both of us a small smile.

Lastly, she pointed at the remaining two that were seated few feets away from me. "Genshirou Saji," she pointed at the boy with short blonde hair and rolled up sleeves. He eyed me sideways and gave me a 'hmph' before he looked away and buried his face back into the manga he was reading. "And Ruruko Nimura. They are my two pawns." The petite girl with twin ponytails waved at us cheerfully. Her features greatly reminded me of Rin since they had matching hairstyles, but their personalities were definitely different. Way different. The girl in front of me was nothing like a tsundere as she was happily latching herself onto Saji.

"Whaa, so many onee-chan," Illya declared excitingly which brought a small smile on Sona's stoic face.

"So you want to introduce yourselves? Even though I mentioned you to them, I think it's still better to do it again," Sona told both Illya and I. I gave her a brief nod and turned to the busy group in front of me, which they all put down their works and looked at me expectantly.

"Well," I scratched my head sheepishly. "I'm Emiya Shirou, and this is Illya." With traditional Japanese greeting, both Illya and I bowed our head. "We are now under your care."

Then the boy, Saji, suddenly got up from his seat, surprising everyone especially the girl who was still latching onto him. I merely looked at him, unfazed by his action. He had already shown his displeasure towards me earlier during the introduction.

"You," Pointing at me rudely, he began to rant out his annoyance. "Who do you think you are? Hurting our Kaichou!" The boy half yelled across the room.

I was confused at first, but then realization dawn upon my face. Ah. So that was the problem. The boy thought that Illya and I hurt his Kaichou during the little assessment, so was simply being protective right now. Since Illya looked tiny in his eyes, he was sure that I was the one responsible for the crime.

To begin with, Sona was unharmed after the fight, so I wasn't sure how he thought she was injured in the process. Secondly, Illya was the one who unleashed the attacks, and in fact, I almost jumped in to save her from harm.

I couldn't help but quirk up a small smile and decided to have a bit of fun. "So?" I asked the still fuming boy challengingly. He seemed to be surprised at my tone, but decided to wait and hear me out. "I did hurt your Kaichou badly. In fact," I looked back and gave Sona and small wink. "She even got on her knees to beg for mercy."

Strangely, the temperature of the room seemed to increase by a big margin, but the phenomenon was quickly explained after looking at Saji. The face of the blonde was literally redder than a tomato, and steams seemed to be coming out from the top of his head. Before he could unleash his wrath at me, I continued with a sadistic tone.

"You should've seen her," I said, dropping my voice down to almost a whisper. "She was helpless. She was -"

I was interrupted in mid sentence as the furious boy charged at me with his fist high up in the air. This was way too fun. I guess I finally understood why Rin enjoyed teasing me so much. Maybe I taunted the boy too far, since anyone could tell that Sona was his weak spot, but I couldn't help myself . When he was only inches away from me, I simply reinforced my body, preparing myself to take the blow head on.

But it never came.

Sona was proved to be fast enough to catch the punch in mid air before it could make any contact with my body. Even though I wasn't really scared, for Saji's own safety, it was best that Sona intercepted his fist, since punching my reinforced body would probably end up with few broken bones.

"Kaichou!" Saji protested with a betrayed look. "Why don't you let me punch this, this…" He was trying really hard to come up with an insult, but seemed to be too angry to think. The steam from earlier was probably a sign that the heat he was emitting had cooked his brain. Or was that smoke from his internal wiring getting fried?

Sona sighed heavily and glared at me before turning his attention to Saji. "Saji," she began while rubbing his forehead. "For the fifth time, they didn't hurt me or anything. Thank you for caring so much, but you need to calm down."

She then turned back to me and glared at me again. "And Shirou," she began with a harsh tone. "What is the point of doing this? I do not want to see any of this happen. I value team cohesion a lot." At her last statement, both of us nodded, but it seemed to me that Saji was still not satisfied. I dismissed him, but secretly told myself to amend to the poor boy. He was only trying to be protective and that was understandable, in fact, his protectiveness could also be read as loyalty.

"Once we start our strategy sessions, we will understand each other's abilities more," she declared while shifting her glasses. Ah, how nostalgic. At her mention of strategy session, it brought back memories of devising rudimentary plans that may or may not work right before a battle to avoid getting killed by enemy Servants. With our amazing luck, plans failed nine times out of ten. "However, we have a really serious problem right now." At this point, everyone in the room stopped working and turned their attention to Sona. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she slowly addressed the issue. "We have a Fallen Angel on campus."

The temperature of the room seemed to drop drastically to the point where the previously fuming Saji was now shivering and beading cold sweat. Ruruko, who was already latching onto Saji, only seemed snuggled closer. Her already pale face only seemed grew whiter. The blue haired rook, Tsubasa, didn't look any better. She, too, seemed to be terrified at news as she was currently embracing herself with Tomoe.

The only ones in the room that weren't really traumatized by the revelation were Sona, Tsubaki, Illya, and I. As the queen of the peerage, Sona probably informed Tsubaki about this special case since her stoic expression never changed from the start. On the other hand, Illya and I had multiple question marks popping out of our heads. We were still particularly new to this world, so the term 'Fallen Angel' didn't really faze us, but judging at how quickly the atmosphere of the room changed, the problem seemed to be really serious. As far as I'm concerned, a Fallen Angel shouldn't be nearly as terrifying as Saber Alter. Having been provided with infinite energy, she became stronger than ever, to the point where she could overwhelm Illya's Berserker in a head on fight. Due to the endless supply of mana, Saber Alter no longer had nary a limitation, making her attacks more destructive and powerful.

"So," I decided to be the first one to end this dreadful silence. "What is this Fallen Angel you speak of, and what is wrong with them?"

"Well," Sona pushed her glasses and attempted to explain the situation to us. "To be exact, Fallen Angels are not bad, at least not anymore I guess."

That brought up some more questions. What did she mean 'not bad anymore'? Her explanation seemed to confused almost everyone in the room as they were probably told to avoid Fallen Angels at all cost in the past. After seeing our confused faces, Sona sighed and decided to explain more thoroughly.

"This is a good chance to explain things to you two," she began. "There are three factions, which are the Angels, Fallen Angels, and Devils." Everyone in the room, minus two, nodded as they had already known this. Sona continued. "Then a war erupted, and it ended with thousands of casualties. Eventually, the war ended with a tie due to the fact that the three factions lost their main forces. As of right now, small conflicts still exist, but there are no outright battles." Then she furrowed her brows and muttered. "To think that a Fallen Angel would sneak into my school... how foolish."

"So what should we do about it?" I asked calmly, still not seeing the reason for their fright, so I decided to take a stab in the dark, "Do we eliminate her or -"

"Eliminate!" Saji said with a shaky voice. "Are you crazy? Do you honestly think you can kill them?"

Before I could get my answer out, Sona cut it. "No, we don't need to eliminate her. For now, we need to somehow track down the Fallen Angel and keep a close eye on them. However, if any questionable actions are made, then I will permit you to terminate them." Somehow, I had a feeling that the last part was meant for Illya and I, or at least not for her pawn. Sona saw a glimpse of what Illya and I could do, so she was willing to entrust us on this issue.

"What should we look out for when facing one?" I asked again. Before confronting any potential threats, it was my habit to research and understand my opponent as thorough as possible in order to devise a plan beforehand. Even if the plan failed, which would most likely be the case, it would still be advantageous for me to learn the strengths and weaknesses in advance.

"Yes," Sona said. "Their weapons are light-based, meaning they are really poisonous to us. Besides that, I don't think there are any other things to look out for," she said slowly, no doubt double checking with herself.

I knitted my brows as I took in the limited information I received. Things got a lot harder than I expected. To be exact, the weapons that Fallen Angels possessed could be problematic as it could fatally wound us. Yeah...definitely needed a strategy session this time. I turned to look at Illya, only to find a mischievous looking girl looking at me. I returned her with a smug smile. _I think I have an idea._

*Scene Break*

"Whaaaat! What did you say?" Motohama blurted out with disbelief, while picking his ears.

"Don't tell me that you…" On the side, Matsuda seemed to be equally shocked by what Issei had revealed as he was unable to close his mouth properly.

I tried. I tried very hard not to gape at this impossible news, but in the end, I still failed miserably. To think that Issei had a girlfriend was like saying Shinji had won the Grail War... _Impossible._ Not trying to be rude, but dating a pervert was something I would never do, and if Illya happened to date one, well, that boy better start running because I would be coming for him with a speed that surpassed Rider's pegasus.

"Oh?" I asked with a brow raised. "What's her name then?"

"My girlfriend is Yuuma Amano!" Issei declared proudly with his chin high and back straight. "She is really cute. We are going on a date after school!"

"So how did all this happen?" At this point, Motohama had been trying really hard to conceal his anger and jealousy. Matsuda on the other hand, was literally fuming as his eyes were now replaced by burning hellfire. "You wanna tell us anything?"

"Well, it's not that complicated," Issei scratched his head sheepishly. "Yesterday was the first time that I met Yuuma-chan. Then she asked me to go out with her, so I guess that's it."

That caught my attention right away. Why would a girl that Issei had never met in his entire life approached him all of a sudden? Furthermore, what bothered me the most was not the concept of 'love at first sight', but the fact that Issei accepted her instantly. Most of the time, love at first sight usually referred to admiration or a simple teenage crush with a perfect example Rin as almost every student admired her greatly. However, none of them had the courage to ask her out, save for Shinji, who got rejected multiple times. As far as I knew, Yuuma and Issei were complete strangers yesterday and in one night, their non-existent friendship had developed into a romantic relationship. I wasn't even sure if I could call this romance since it happened so quickly.

"Then you two must be in love," I supplied dryly. Something was not right here because this was all too unrealistic. But then again, this may be a good opportunity for Issei to learn a valuable life lesson as some experiences could only be learned through mistakes.

"Oh, there she is!" Issei shouted excitingly while pointing at the door. Standing there shyly was the girl we had been talking about this whole time: Yuuma Amano. Dismissing all of us instantly, Issei got up and rushed to the door, which made Motohama and Matsuda collapsed on their knees in despair. I chuckled lightly and watched the scene unfold before me.

At first glance, Yuuma Amano seemed to be a really innocent and likeable girl. To be completely honest, Issei was right, she was an attractive girl with long black hair and violet color eyes. Then again, experience taught me that attractive girls were dangerous, namely Rin. I was glad that I got to know her Though she was widely admired at school for being a role model, in reality, she was quite stingy, bossy, and hostile towards others. She was manipulative in many ways, something that no one knew besides Saber and I. Even so, it didn't change the fact that deep down, she was a caring and an honorable person.

Yuuma seemed to notice my gaze when she looked straight back into my eyes before she turned away with a reddened face. The moment we made eye contact, a chill went down my spine. I could smell a strong scent of parfum coming from her, but that wasn't the main problem as many teenage girls tend to put too much on their bodies. It was the strong scent of blood that made my unease grew. The power emitting from her wasn't as royal and positive compared to Rias, instead, it was deceptive and cruel like a cold blooded killer.

This small exchange only lasted for a second. Before I realized, the scents from earlier disappeared completely as she gave Issei a warm and cheerful smile. Yuuma Amano was dangerous, like Rias, but in a different way. If Rias were to fight, she would strike in an honorable way, much like how Saber preferred. Yuuma did not care for such thing. The deceptive feeling that rolled off of her only reminded me of Caster, the manipulative witch of Colchis. Unlike all other Servants, Medea specialized in plotting and crafting plans as she knew that in a full on duel, she would not be able to overpower the three Knight Classes. The fact that Yuuma laid eyes on Issei could only mean one thing: She wanted something from Issei. When thinking in a logical manner, I could not come up with any possible reason for her to find something she wanted on that perverted boy. Unless she was also a pervert and wanted some of Issei's vintage collections, I didn't think so.

As ignorant as always, Issei did not seem to notice the danger he was in. On the bright side, I was almost certain that this was the target that we were searching for since no other people I knew of could give off such intense blood scent. That saved us a lot of time since the Fallen Angel basically presented herself to us and with the bounded field deployed, there was no way that she would escape unnoticed.

Even so, something still unnerved me. Her presence felt particularly familiar, but I couldn't pinpoint when and where I felt it. Besides that, why would she show herself like this? The plan was flowing too smoothly as everything we could hope for happened at the best time possible. But this wasn't the time to hesitate. I received valuable information and whether it turned out to be false or not, I still had to report it to Sona and let her decide the future course of action.

"You guys," Issei exclaimed while waving at us. "Come here and let me introduce you to Yuuma-chan!" Matsuda and Motohama managed to drag themselves off of their feet as they made their way to the door. "This one with glasses is Motohama. The bald one is Matsuda," Issei declared while pointing at them respectively. "And this is Shir- Wait, where did he go?"

On the other hand, I had better things to do. When he was introducing his two other friends, I quietly turned and headed toward the Student Council Room. There was still twenty minutes left before lunch ended and that was enough time for me to announce the identity of the Fallen Angel and come up with a feasible plan with Sona.

"Come in," I heard a voice called behind the door right after I knocked. Like yesterday, most council members were present and respectively doing their own share of work. Sona was sipping on a cup of tea while staring at a chess board, and sitting across her was...

"Onii-chan!" Illya declared happily after she saw me entering the room. I was taken aback when I saw Illya here and even more surprised to see her in a chess game against Sona. While I may not be an expert at the game, judging from the pieces that Illya still had on the board, it was obvious that the game was a one sided beatdown.

"Shirou," Sona said in a serious tone. "Didn't I tell you to come here every lunch? You, too, have paper works to do for me." Crap. With the Fallen Angel shenanigans going on, I honestly forgot about it. At least I got a valid excuse for my near thirty minutes absence, namely Yuuma Amano.

"Well Sona," I began. "I was -"

"Kaichou," Sona barked out at me. "Call me Kaichou when we are at school."

I simply shrugged and continued on where I left off. "As I was saying," I tried again. "I'm pretty sure that I found the Fallen Angel."

The scene in front of me was exactly how I imagined. The usually composed and calmed Tsubaki dropped the stack of paper she was holding as she could no longer conceal her stoicism. Tomoe and Tsubasa were both gaping at me, and Saji, who was also sipping on a cup of tea, dropped the cup in surprise. Unsurprisingly, the only two that stayed absolutely calm after the revelation were Sona and Illya. The latter one simply didn't care much as she looked up at me excitingly and clapped her hands, "So we found the bad angel!"

Perhaps Sona was also surprised that I managed to find locate the target so quickly, but she hid her emotion well. As the king of her peerage, she had to stay absolutely calm and analyze the situation thoroughly. It was her duty as a king to give out orders to her servants, and if she somehow panicked like the rest, then the group would be like a chicken with a head cut off. I couldn't help but smile slightly. Indeed, I had the right master. Even though she was still inexperienced, she would most definitely be terrifying later on.

"Do you know anything about Yuuma Amano?" I asked, hoping that Sona would recognize the name. To my dismay, she shook her head.

After a long pause, she began in a calm voice."As of right now," Sona began slowly in a calm voice. "Pretend we never know that she existed, but keep an close eye on her." She then turned and looked at me expectantly. "I believe you have everything ready by this point?"

That question caught me by surprise. "Yea I do. But may I ask, why are you trusting me with this?"

Sona gave me a small smirk and answered, "I have my reasons. Besides, let's see how efficient you are." Her glasses were shining brightly, and I could imagine her laughing in the most devilish way possible. I managed to suppressed a sigh at her very legitimate reasoning. "But Shirou," she calmed herself down and turned into a serious tone. "Only, and only, keep an eye on her. Do not do anything." I nodded at her request. "To think that it would actually be Issei…" Sona muttered the last part to herself. She was definitely hiding something from us, but I trust her judgement on this matter so decided not to question her. After all, there must be a reason behind all this, and I was sure that she would share it to us when the time was right.

*Scene Break*

"Have fun Issei," I waved and wish him good luck on his date. Yeah... he definitely needed it.

"Goodbye Shirou, Motohama, and Matsuda," he waved back at us before taking Yuuma's hand and left the school ground. Motohama and Matsuda seemed to be too depressed to answer since with Issei gone, they could no longer watch the video that he brought today.

"Well, see you guys tomorrow," I, too, said my goodbyes and parted away. Like Sona had instructed, my job was to keep a close eye on Issei and report everything back to her tomorrow. However, if deemed necessary, I would ignore my orders and interfere whatsoever.

I had asked Illya to stay with the rest of the peerage as I prefered to act alone and also the fact that she should bond with her new onee-chans. Even though she protested in the beginning about not wanting to leave his onii-chan, Sona managed to convince her with the power of food, namely tonkatsu. The rest of the peerage seemed to enjoy Illya's company, and the feelings seemed to be mutual with an exception of Tomoe: She loved Illya to death. With the newly addition of Illya, Tomoe seemed to regard Illya as her best friend as both girls were extremely hyper. In everyone's eyes, Illya was equivalent to their little sister, well, a destructive little sister. So when I requested them to take care of Illya, the entire council took in my request immediately.

Then there was me. After the little interaction with Saji, they probably thought of me as a cold hearted sadistic killer or the complete opposite of Illya. I didn't really mind to be honest. If they were going to let their assumptions to dictate the way they viewed me, then so be it. Plus, as of right now, I shouldn't distract myself with the future relationships of the peerage since I had more important things to occupy my thoughts with.

Initially, I planned on asking Illya to set up a bounded field to track down Issei and Yuuma during their date. However, I came into realization that the time we had in hand was not enough for such an advance and time consuming task. As a result, I'm going back to the basic where no magic was needed in the process.

I was going to stalk them.

If Rin heard this, she would go on and on about how that wasn't the magus way and how I was such a failure at magecraft. First, she would flash me the iconic 'Tohsaka Rin Scary Smile', which featured a really innocent smile that implied something close to are-you-really-that-stupid? Then she would sigh heavily and began lecturing me on how a first rated magus would do things. Well, things that were impossible for me to do anyways. I guess it was good to be a genius, considering that such tasks would be a piece of cake.

I quickly upped my pace, afraid that I would lose my targets. Normally, I would prefer to have at least five hundred meters in between, but this was a special case. Yuuma's intention was still unclear to me, meaning I would need to be near enough to close the distance as fast as possible to prevent any potential tragedy from happening. At the same time, I shouldn't get too close, in case of alerting my presence to the Fallen Angel.

As of right now, everything seemed to be fine as I could see Yuuma and Issei chatting happily with my reinforced eyes. I didn't dare to lose my focus at the peaceful sight. This was just the calm before the storm as anything could break down at any given I was a bit too concentrated on my task to notice my surroundings, specifically other presences. Then again. a stalker would never notice another stalker.

"Do not move," a familiar voice commanded me in an icy tone. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw a strand of crimson hair and another figure following closely behind. I closed my eyes and sighed heavily.

"Rias-senpai," I said politely without moving my body. Who else could it be? As far as I knew, the only person that had crimson hair was the girl I bumped into earlier. "How can I help you?"

"Yes." she replied. "You can start off by telling me what in the devils are you doing?" The tone was strict and demanding, but it still wasn't terrifying enough for me to spill my operation.

"And why should I tell you?" I answered her with another question.

"Because if you don't," Rias began with a dangerous voice. "Akeno here will be the one to question you, gladly." Behind me, I could heard a light 'fufufu' sound coming from the second girl.

"Oh?" I challenged. "And what can she possibly do? Tickle me to death?"

Rias gave in a fake laugh and said, "You think I'm joking? Trust me, you don't want to find out."

I was starting to get a little impatient here. Every second I wasted here by having this pointless conversation with Rias meant that Issei and Yuuma would be farther away from me. I cursed under my breath and after a short pause, I decided to give in.

"On a duty for Sona," I answered her simply. By pushing all the responsibility onto Sona, Rias won't be able to question me anymore, since it was none of her business. Besides, I wasn't lying when I said I was on a duty for Sona. "And if you may, I am running short on time."

"For what? Hyoudou Issei and Yuuma?" I froze instantly when she casually threw the two names out. With my silence, Rias knew that she had guessed correctly and gave out an angry 'hmph'. "She agreed to let me have him...what is the meaning of this," she muttered furiously to herself.

I raised my eyebrow at that. What did all this have to do with Rias? The him here was most definitely Issei, but for what purpose? Also, she knew Sona? So many questions were popping up in my head as I tried to fathom the situation. Unless...

"You're a devil, too?" I blurted out nearly palming my face. How could she not be? How could an ordinary human emit that much power?

"Yes," Rias replied in annoyance. "Did Sona not tell you about the Gremory Clan?" I shook my head at her question. So that was what I was missing from the conversation earlier. I couldn't help but felt a bit betrayed when Sona hid such important information from me.

"Well, she did tell me to only keep an eye on the Fallen Angel," I confessed, which somehow made Rias sigh in relief. "What are you going to do with Issei then?" I asked. I didn't like the idea when multiple people were toying around with Issei as if he was a tool.

"The Fallen Angel will lead Issei to the border of the city and kill him in the park near dawn. I'm only here to witness it." Her casual response only brought chills down my spine. Then it became fury. "But don't worry, I am going to reincarnate him after his death." So was this the reason that I wasn't allowed to interfere? Did Issei really deserve death only because he was needed in Rias' peerage. What about Sona? Why didn't she stop Rias from doing such inhuman thing? The idea was so selfish that I couldn't contain my anger anymore.

"So you are going to let her kill Issei and then reincarnate him after?" I managed to grit out through my clenched teeth. "And you are not going to save him?"

"Nope," Rias answered casually. "By reviving him from dead, he will be grateful and will stay loyal to me." This was just wrong. A king should do such things to his servants, in fact, the way Rias planned to do would only cause uprising and trust issues among the peerage. Saber was regarded as one of the best rulers in the history for several reasons. She was caring and selfless towards her people. In every battle, she placed herself in the front of the army and stood side by side her foes to defeat her enemies. She was fair and benevolent, basically everything that Rias didn't have.

Knowing what would happen to Issei, I couldn't stand here and do nothing. "That's not how you should do it," I flatly pointed out her incorrect mindset. "You only gain trust through selfless acts. The way you're doing will not get you anywhere. If you don't save Issei, then I will interfere,"

"First of all, you don't know anything about my peerage," she said in a dignified tone. "I love my peerage a lot. I would die for them," she said, sounding genuine, which kind of surprised me. At her tone, I could tell she was being honest and I was willing to go as far as to believing her, still, the method was not approvable. "Second of all, didn't Sona tell you not to do such thing." Rias pointed out with a scowl. "Don't you dare mess up my plan. He is an important piece, and you are not going to stop me."

"Well, I am pretty independent sometimes, but I prefer not to," I retorted back to her. "But in special circumstances, I will need to make an exception. If you don't want me to interfere, then simply save Issei," I offered her one last chance.

She glared at me and turned to the black haired girl behind her. "I will talk to Akeno about this," she told me. "Don't you dare move."

While Rias was discussing with Akeno, I forced myself to relax a bit, but at the thought of Rias' cruel decision, it only made my blood boil. After about a minute, Rias turned back to me.

"As long as you stay out of this," she began calmly. "I will do anything within my power to save Issei from getting killed.

I narrowed my eyes at her, not sure if she was lying to me or not as I couldn't think of an appropriate reason for her to change her mind in an instant. Still, as I proposed earlier, I would stay out of this as long as she could fulfill the deal.

"Deal," I said, still unsure about this, but decided to go along with it for now. "Then I will simply leave this matter to you. I trust you won't eat your own words." Rias simply waved me off and left with Akeno instantly.

The hero part of me didn't buy anything that Rias said earlier. The way she dismissed me only confirmed my suspicion that she was only agreeing to dismiss me. Ultimately, she would still follow through her plan and reincarnate Issei after his death.

Well, I did promise her not to interfere. But if no one found out…

*Scene Break*

"Alright this should be good enough," I muttered to myself.

After a good forty minutes, I finally reached the tallest building in the city, which was about four kilometers away from the general area that Rias said earlier. I looked up at the dusty sky. _It was time._

Reinforcing my eyes, I focused my attention at the empty park. I was surprised to find no one in the park, not even parents and children. The emptiness unnerved me greatly as I thought about the possibility of arriving too late to prevent the murder.

I relaxed right away when I distantly saw two figures walking into the park together while holding some shopping bags. I quickly noted the area around the park and unsurprisingly, I saw two figures watching Issei and Yuuma from the side like a hawk.

All I could do now was wait and watch the scene unfold. By then. I would know if Rias was a trustworthy person and if the disruption of her plan was deemed to be necessary. Patiently, I waited for about another minute, then it all began.

Yuuma Amano, the once innocent and shy looking girl, began to reveal her true form as a Fallen Angel. The most noticeable change was her clothing as it now consisted of a strap of leather across her breast, a thong like piece around her hips, gloves that ran up her entire arm, and black thigh high boots. She seemed to grow taller and looked a lot more mature. Compare to the modest looking Yuuma I knew, the Fallen in front of me was nothing but erotic and seductive. Under normal circumstances, I would blush heavily at the sight of her clothing, but I was in complete focus right now.

"Come on Rias," I whispered to myself. "If you're going to do something, you better do it now." Yuuma seemed to be giving a monologue to Issei as she was just hovering over him with a pair of black feathered wings. No doubt in few seconds, she would strike Issei and everything would be all but over. This was the only chance for Rias to have a clear shot as the Fallen was distracted.

When Yuuma seemed to complete her speech, she conjured a light spear as she readied herself to launch a fatal attack on Issei. I still had faith in Rias, believing that she was only waiting for the very last moment to reveal herself as she could become the heroic goddess in Issei's eyes. I didn't really like that idea, considering that it was a risky move, but it was still better than letting an innocent die.

I turned my attention back to Rias. Still no movement. Dammit. I still wanted to keep my promise since at any given moment, Rias could launch a counter attack. Maybe she was waiting for the Fallen Angel to get closer to Issei so that she wouldn't miss her attack?

How wrong was I.

Even when the Fallen closed in onto Issei, Rias was only watching the scene with a small smile, probably pre-celebrating the addition of a new pawn. At this rate, Rias would break her promise and Issei would die, and I was not going to allow this.

However, there was one more problem. My left arm.

To project any sort of weapon, I would invoke the abilities of the arm as I retrieved Archer's past knowledge. Memories of the burning sensation from the arm made me hesitant on using any projections. Despite the Shroud of Martin cutting off Archer's circuits, the arm would activate and unseal itself once I began channeling my magic circuits.

This was a dilemma for me. The pain I experienced felt like I was sitting on a mountain of swords, being slowly cut and stabbed by my own body, and I didn't want that to happen again. On the other hand, by ignoring Issei would be going against my own ideal. I cursed under my breath. If Archer was here, he would definitely be giving me a smug smile and a face that would look something like what-are-you-going-to-do-now? However, I did notice about an interesting change: my body no longer felt pain. Even with the Shroud of Martin blocking the foreign circuits, the arm would still flow random magical energy into my body on daily basis, constantly became hotter as I move.

Dammit. I wasn't going to turn back on my own ideal. If I happened to die because of this, it would all be Archer's fault.

 _Trace on…_

In my left hand, a recurved bow shimmered into existence. And in my right hand, I traced Hrunting. It was a sword, a noble phantasm once carried by Beowulf in his battle against the mother of Grendel, but it had been reshaped. The sword was no longer a sword as it was spiraled into a more aerodynamic form, resembling nothing more like a jagged screw.

Notching the sword onto my bow, I charged it with odd as I took aim at the now charging Fallen Angel. Once I channeled enough odd into the sword, I release it.

Once fired, the spiraled sword reshaped itself again, turning into a red magical bullet of death. Unlike Caladbolg II, which focused mainly on destructing everything in its path, Hrunting was like a homing missile. Upon released, it would continue to pursue its target as long as the shooter kept aiming at them, making it a guaranteed hit.

It was all too late. My indecisiveness had failed me greatly. If only I had fired the sword seconds earlier.

Hrunting, however, lived up to its name as it pierced the Fallen Angel's heart, pinning her to the ground due to the sheer amount of power behind the blow. But I was unable to save Issei from his fate. Yuuma managed to fulfill her goal by killing Issei right when Hrunting made contact with her. In the end, no one won, save for Rias. I gritted my teeth at the thought of it. Not only did the crimson haired devil break her promise, but she also got to reincarnated Issei and made him an addition to her peerage. Despite the fact that Issei would technically still be 'alive' after today, her selfish acts and deceptions only made me lost all trust and respect for her.

Nonetheless, despite my failure at saving my friend and interfering the conflict, which I had a good reason to, the death of the Fallen Angel would remain as an enigma, as long as no one found out about my presence tonight.

*Scene Break*

 _It had been awhile. It had been awhile since he stepped foot onto this nostalgic place. Standing in front of him was a proud looking girl with twin ponytails._

" _Are you my Servant?" she asked with her arms crossed, looking extremely annoyed. Before he could answer, the girl cut him off. "How can I know if you're my Servant but not other Master's"_

 _He shrugged and answered her question with another question. "Well, how can I know if you're my Master. For all I know, you could just be a pretending."_

 _That seemed to further annoyed the magus as she lifted her arm high up and showed him the three command seals on the back of her hand. "Is this not enough for you?"_

 _The man stood up and sighed. "That's not what I mean. I saying if you are competent enough to have my loyalty."_

 _That definitely crossed the line. The girl was now fuming, hunching her back like an angry cat with her fist balled. To begin with, she never wanted to summon him in the first place, she wanted a Saber class Servant. Adding salt to injury, the Servant she summoned was also a promptus brat._

" _Ah," the man said, bringing the girl out of her thoughts. "In the future, I will have you to hide when the fight starts. That should keep someone as inexperienced as you alive. The casual assumption towards the girl's ability only made the her fury to increase. "Leave everything to me. My victory is your victory. Of course, I will yield any spoils of war to you. Anyways, stay safe and let me do all the work. I do not expect anything from you."_

 _That was the last straw._

 _Raising her hand high up again, she cited furiously. "By my command seal, you will have absolute obedience to whatever I say!"_


	3. Truth

**Author's Notes:** _Hello! Here is the new chapter. Well, I'm surprised that most of you are content with the idea of having a manipulative Rias. I honestly thought that I will get a lot of hate for that, considering most people love Rias as a character and that I might be the first one to bash her like that. Of course, there are people who don't like it, and I can't please everyone now, can I? I just find it too interesting that she manages to get all the perfect pieces without much effort. Right, one of the reviewer pointed out that Hrunting's explosion should've killed Issei too. Thanks for telling me that b/c I honestly forgot about it. Also, can someone guess what is the very last part of the chapter for? Some people are wondering, but take a guess first! Also, a question for you guys: What are some pairing suggestions? I have a good idea, but I want to hear some suggestions._

 _Now on to the chapter. When I finished writing, I realized that it was longer than I intended to be, so decided to just break it apart. This chapter will focus mainly on Sona's peerage bonding and Shirou learning more about the Devils, so it will take some time to develop. And of course, the talk with Sona. What will happen to Asia now that Raynare is dead? If you have any thoughts on this feel free to drop a review and let me know. Anyway, enjoy and tell me what you think of the chapter and story overall!_

 _ **P.S: Still looking for a beta**_

 **Chapter 3: Truth**

 _Tick tock - tick tock…_

A minute had passed by, and I was still waiting.

 _Tick - tock tick - tock…_

Two minutes had gone by, and I was still waiting for the answer.

 _Tick - tock tick - tock…_

That was enough stalling. I wanted answers now. "So," I finally began, trying to stay as calm as possible. "Are you going to tell me why?"

The darked haired glasses girl in front of me and I had been involved in an intense staring contest, where neither one of us were willing to back down. "And I told you that I have my very own reasons that you don't need to know," she snapped,

"And why is that?" I asked, slightly irritated by her response since that was all she was willing to tell me.

"Look," she seemed to have enough of this as well as she rose up from the chair to meet my height. Even so, she was still a lot shorter than me, forcing her to cock her neck upwards to meet my eyes. "Let me tell you how things work. I do the planning, and you execute it. And when I plan things, I look over all the consequences and rewards. My peerage trust me with all my judgements and you should too."

I had waited the whole night to have this conversation with Sona as I had too many unanswered questions for her, and she too, owed me an explanation. Of course, she wasn't the only one. Rias was also on the top of my list, and I was planning to have a talk with the crimson haired girl once I finished confronting Sona.

From what Rias told me, Sona knew about the Fallen Angel's existence and motive all along, and after confirming with my king, she shamelessly admitted her involvement in Rias' plan. What I didn't understand was that she was the student president yet she granted Rias free reins to commit such manipulative and cruel act under her nose.

"How can I trust you when I have no idea what you're planning and knowing that you don't trust me?" I countered and suddenly the room fell silent.

"Um, sorry to interrupt," Ruruko managed to squeak out, breaking the ice. When sona looked at her she shuddered a bit, but decided to continue. "With all respects Kaichou, we fully trust everything you plan, and we are willing to do what you tell us to do," the ponytailed girl said carefully and after seeing the approving looks from her peers, she regained her courage began again. "But sometimes, we really want to know. Just like we trust you, can you at least trust us?" At the pawn's statement, everyone in the room nodded in unison, and I raised my eyebrow to give Sona a I-told-you-so look. She glared at me before she sighed heavily and massaged her forehead slowly.

"Things are not as simple as you think Shirou," she supplied. "I know the consequences full well, so I decided to let Rias do it."

"Then why don't you tell us?" I told her, managed to fully calm myself down at this point.

"Alright then," Sona cleared her voice and began in a serious tone. "So you all know about the Fallen Angel, and the task that I told Shirou to do right?" Once again, everyone in the room nodded and she continued. "Well, there is a backstory behind all this."

I narrowed my eyes and indicated her to go on. "Truth is, the Fallen Angel has been on campus for awhile now," Her confession threw everyone off, including me. Saji seemed like he just discovered that tomorrow was the end of the world was was now looking at Sona with a terrified expression. Calmer ones such as Tsubasa and Tsubaki only raised an eyebrow at the revelation. My best guess was that the two had enough trust in Sona's decision makings that they never questioned their King's order. In their minds, Sona would give out a command only if she had legitimate reasons behind. "Hmm, I think for at least a month," she further concluded, which resulted in Tsubasa flinching a bit, but Tsubaki still sitting with a stoic and unamused expression.

This was getting a bit ridiculous right now. So the Fallen Angel had been on campus for one month, yet Sona, the student president that was supposed to ensure everyone's safety, failed to perform her duty as she put the entire student body in danger. I could feel anger building up in me once again and was about to reach its breaking point, but I managed to calm myself down. Right now wasn't the time. From her own reasonings in the beginning and the reactions of her peerage, Sona was a competent and cool headed when it comes to decision makings, so there must be a reason for her to do such thing.

"And just why didn't you get rid of her?" I asked, wanting to hear her reasonings. "I'm pretty sure that you know the consequences."

"I know and I tried," Sona said, catching me by surprise. "Except I couldn't. So I made the best choice I had in the worst situation."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked, thinking of all the possibilities. It might be the Fallen Angel's strength that intimidated her, even so, she could always ask the Gremory for help.

Wait a second... Gremory? I had to refrain myself from banging my head into the wall. The answer was right in front of me all this time. If Rin was in my place, she would've figured this out in an instant and questioned my intelligence.

"It's Rias, isn't it?" Honestly, I shouldn't be surprised at this discovery. From what I learned, Rias was as manipulative as Caster: only the important pieces in her plans mattered and to achieve her end goal, she would not hesitate to sacrifice her pieces. She didn't care about the Fallen Angel, her true aim was…

"Issei, " Sona nodded and finished my train of thoughts. So that sneaky fox had been planning this for a long time. "But I couldn't stop her because I don't have all the power in the school."

"What do you mean by that?" I narrowed my eyes and asked.

"Because," she began. "The Gremory Clan and the Sitri Clan are the founders of this school, meaning both Rias and I share the same amount of power. She doesn't want to interfere most of the stuff because I'm the student president. In return, I have to listen and most likely allow her to do what she proposes." I suppressed a sigh. That changed everything. If that was what she meant by complicated, then I truly understood now.

"Wait." Surprisingly, it was Saji that spoke up this time. "I didn't quite catch the last part. So what about Issei?" I felt like the boy wanted to double check the validity of what he just heard about Issei.

This time, it was Tsubaki who spoke up to answer the question. "Issei was killed yesterday by the Fallen Angel but was reincarnated after by the Gremory," the stoic girl said. "And it seemed that this whole 'murder' was planned for at least a month," the queen of Sona concluded, which made Saji's face morphed from sad to surprised and lastly distaste.

"Kaichou!" Saji clenched his fist and stood up from the chair he was sitting in. He looked up at Sona with a betrayed look but was quickly replaced with fury. "How can you let Rias - senpai do that to Issei! He is my friend!" So that was it. That was the reason for the blonde haired boy to jump out of his seat. I would definitely be react the same way if I was in Saji's shoes, considering that his role model allowed the other Devil to not only kill Issei but also manipulate him. Then again, I did vented out some of my anger by sniping the Fallen Angel with Hrunting from kilometers away.

"Like I said Saji," Sona pleaded. "Let me finish ok?" The boy nodded grudgingly at her and Sona continued. "When I learned about her plan to use the Fallen Angel to kill Issei, I rejected right away. I will not allow any form of murder in my school," she said seriously and took a deep breath to continue. "She then started to tell me that I don't have all the decision making power and that she would continue on with her plan. She was only informing her act, not asking for permission." I nodded my head at Sona's statements. That sounded like the Rias I encountered. Even though she was still a stranger to me since we only had one conversation thus far, I was still able to have a general understanding of her personality. Like a child, once Rias set her eyes onto the candy, she would want to get her hands on it at all cost. She would tunnel on the quickest and easiest plan, and disregard the potential consequences or better plans.

Like what happened yesterday.

To secure one's loyalty, killing them and reviving them after was definitely not the correct approach. She wanted Issei so badly that she became impatient, failing to think of a better plan. Hell, even I could come up with some better ones right now. For starters, as everyone knew, Issei was one of the three well known perverts in the school. Rias, being the most popular and beautiful girl on the campus could simply use her beauty and curvy body to charm him. The second way could be a bit riskier, but would definitely provide a huge impact. Like all the superhero stories or tales, the hero or heroine would always arrive at the last possible second to save the ones in danger. Rias could become the heroine in Issei's eyes by saving Issei right when the Fallen Angel striked. Yes, it would scare the boy and cause some confusion later on, but the job was done; Rias would win Issei over completely. Sadly, that wasn't the case.

"Of course, I protested and told her to just reincarnate Issei instead of getting the Fallen Angel involved," Sona continued. "But she wouldn't listen. She said something about securing loyalty and stuff, which I didn't approve. I only relented after she promised that the Fallen Angel would not hurt any other student and that she would eliminate them afterwards. Besides, as a heir of the Sitri Clan, I shouldn't interfere the Gremory Clan's business," she concluded her confrontation with Rias, and I nodded in understanding. Sona had a good point. No wonder she told me not to interfere Rias' plan since they both had a mutual agreement on this matter and most importantly killing Issei was Rias' decision. This whole matter shouldn't even concern us as it was the Gremorys that performed such shameful act. I couldn't help myself from holding back a mischievous smile when I thought about blackmailing Rias in the future. But this also raised another question in my head: Why Issei? Out of everyone that Rias could've chosen, why did it have to be Issei? Unless Rias was a closet pervert…

I shook my head to banish this disturbing thought. A manipulative closet pervert? I shivered involuntarily at the perfect description of Rin. "But why Issei," this time I spoke up, hoping to use this to distract myself. "I mean, is there a reason behind her decision? Or is it just random?"

Everyone in the room all nodded at my question, eager to hear what Sona had to say. "Well," she began. "Part of our agreement was to have her tell me the reasons for choosing Issei," she admitted. "She told me that Issei has a unique power and that she wants him in her peerage for the upcoming Rating game."

I frowned at her statement. What was this Rating Game that Sona was talking about since the day I met her. "Can you explain to me what this Rating Game is?" I asked Sona and Illya perked up at that too.

"It's just a simulated war game between two peerages," Sona explained half-heartedly, apparently distracted by other thoughts. After a short pause, she finally spoke up again. "Say Shirou, what kind of power do you think Issei has?" I could sense some interest behind her voice, and I could totally see the reason behind it. There was a reason for Rias to be so insistent on having Issei, heck, if she only needed a pawn, she could just grab a random student from the school and reincarnated them without dealing with the Fallen Angel shenanigans.

"I actually don't know," I admitted. Unlike the encounters with Rias and Yuuma, I wasn't able to smell any noticeable scent coming from Issei. The only justified reason that I could come up with was that Issei was just not powerful enough, and I really wanted that to be the case. I sincerely hoped that Rias didn't choose Issei because they shared the same interest and that Rias wanted all of his vintage collections.

"Wait," Saji suddenly shouted and jumped out of his chair once again. His action was enough to startle everyone in the room, causing all of us to look at his direction. Knowing his voice was louder than he intended, he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "I just thought that since Issei is a devil now, I can finally fight him," he declared excitingly with a fist raised high up in the air. All of us looked at each other and let out a big sigh at his declaration while Sona just looked defeated and palmed her face.

"Anyway," Sona cleared her throat, deciding to ignore the boy that was oblivious to this outrageous situation. She then turned and looked at me expectantly, which somewhat confused me since I wasn't sure how to react to it. "Shirou, why don't you tell us what happened on your end? I'm sure everyone wants to know," she said while gesturing to the rest of the room. Everyone nodded and turned their full attention to me.

"Well," I began, not exactly sure what to say, so decided to start when school had ended. "I walked out of school with Issei, Yuuma, Motohama, and Matsuda. After that, I stalked them until Rias and Akeno, I think that's her name, appeared to stop me."

"Then?" Sona asked.

"Then like I told you, Rias told me that you knew about this and that I shouldn't interfere with her business. But I didn't want her to kill Issei, so I made a deal with her."

"What deal?" Sona asked again, curious about the confrontation between Rias and I.

"I will not interfere only if she agrees on keeping Issei alive from the Fallen Angel," I recited the agreement, trying to contain my anger while I was at it. "She accepted my terms so I walked away."

"What about the Fallen Angel?" Sona asked thoughtfully. "I heard that Rias took care of her after the Fallen Angel killed Issei."

"How would I know," I replied dryly. "Didn't I tell you that I left Issei after Rias made her promise?" I stated the obvious to Sona, which she palmed her face and muffled something sounded like 'right'. While I was kind of mad that Rias lied about killing the Fallen Angel, I also felt relieved from the fact that no one seemed to notice my presence last night.

I intended to keep it that way.

I didn't want anyone to know my powers yet, since they could all be potential enemies in the future. By revealing what I was capable to do, future preparations could be made against me, making things a lot more difficult.

"Well, I guess that's it for now," Sona decided. "Tomorrow is a weekend, so I have something special planned," she said with a mischievous voice, eyeing specifically at Illya and I.

I gulped down hard and thought to myself, "Dear Root, what have I done to deserve this?"

*Scene Break*

"Whaaaaaaat," Issei proclaimed loudly with disbelief. "How do you not remember who Yuuma-chan is? He pointed accusingly at Motohama, Matsuda, and me. Naturally, I wasn't going to admit that I remembered anything about the Fallen Angel, since no one in the school seemed to recognize the name, Yuuma Amano. The cunning Fallen Angel must have casted a spell to manipulate the public minds, however, it wasn't really effective against me since as a magus, I had developed basic magic resistance to repel the attack.

"Yea Issei," Motohama began dryly. "Did you hit your head? Who is this Yuuma-chan? Don't tell me it's your girlfriend," he said with a mocking smile. "We all know that you will never get a girlfriend." At his statement, Matsuda nodded like a bobblehead, and I simply shrugged, not wanting to be involved in this.

"Hey Shirou," Issei looked at me with teary eyes. "Do you not remember anything about Yuuma-chan?" His expression was like a kicked puppy, and I had to try my hardest to not give in.

"Yea. How can I remember if they don't?" I lied to the defeated looking boy in front of me. If I spoke the truth to Issei, who knew what kind of chaos would rupture. Also, most importantly. this was no longer my concern. Rias needed to be responsible enough to explain the situation to Issei, including true identity of Yuuma Amano and the reincarnation, so it wasn't my place to reveal the truth.

"I guess you're right," Issei scratched his head and said depressingly, so I decided to cheer him up a bit.

"Hey," I said with a cheerful voice. "Maybe you will meet a really nice person in the near future. Who knows?"

"You think so?" Issei replied lazily, didn't really believe my words. "But I had another weird dream last night," he said as he sighed heavily.

I raised an eyebrow and asked, "Oh? What is it? Mind telling us?"

"Is it about another imaginary girlfriend?" Matsuda teased him, causing Motohama to laugh uncontrollably and Issei to blush furiously.

"Well," Issei began sheepishly. "I guess you're not entirely wrong." Motohama and Matsuda looked at each other for a brief moment and then bursted out laughters after a short pause. Meanwhile, I just scratched my head, not really sure what to say.

"Who is the girl you were dreaming about?" Motohama taunted him. "Is it Akeno - senpai?" At the side, Matsuda, too, wanted to have some fun. "Or is it Sona - senpai?" When Issei shook his head at both names, the duo turned to each other again with confusement but it was quickly replaced by astonishment when they came up with their own assumptions. They slowly inched forward towards Issei, and it seemed like either Motohama and Matsuda grew at least few feets at this very moment or Issei shrunk, became at least twice as small as he used to be. Issei tried to lean back, gaining as much distance between them as possible, unfortunately, he fell off his chair since he was seated sideways. "Don't tell me..." the duo said in unison with fury. "Don't tell me that it was a harem!"

The startled looking boy blinked a few times and then leaped off of the ground with an incredible speed. "Are you guys for real?" Issei half yelled at them in disbelief. "There was no harem," he paused for a bit and added, "Well, a harem would be nice though."

"Then who?" Matsuda demanded.

Issei gave out a dreamy sigh and told us the name. "It was Rias - senpai, how can you forget about her?" He chided his two friends while my eyes widened a bit.

Damn the Root. Why is she everywhere now?

"What," Motohama and Matsuda yelled out in surprise but quickly composed themselves. "Just because you saw her yesterday doesn't mean she will ever notice you. You can keep dreaming."

"But this felt different," Issei protested with a redden face while his friends were laughing at him uncontrollably. "This felt so real!"

"Don't tell me that you felt her body right next to yours when you were sleeping," Matsuda cried out with laughters. "And that you guys were cuddling together."

"But that is exactly what we did," Issei protested again. "I mean, what I dreamed," he muttered the last part out before he gave in another sigh and continued. "I could still remember the smell of her crimson hair, and the feelings of her naked body right next to mine. Her body was so curvy, and the way she touched ..." Before Issei could finish her imaginary experience with Rias, I let out a nervous laugher as I turned to eye at the other two presences. "Hey Issei," I began. "I think you should stop there."

"Huh? Why?" The boy turned and asked me with confusion. I simply pointed towards my right, and the boy jolted out of his seat. Enveloped in what seemed like hellfire were two beasts that were currently staring down at Issei with a burning passion. His expression was priceless but also relatable as it probably was similar to mine when I saw Blue. At this point, Issei only had one choice and one choice only. Since Matsuda and Motohama had unleashed their wrath, there was nothing Issei could do besides…

"Run?" I supplied to the scared looking boy, who looked like he could use some help. Well, my goal was to become a hero of justice, but this wasn't my battle. It was Issei's. I guess he was similar to me in the luck aspect since danger always seemed to follow our footsteps.

Issei gave me a nod of understanding before he darted out of his chair to rush towards the door, towards his freedom. I chuckled lightly as his two other friends bellowed angrily and exited the room as well to chase him. Deciding to ignore his own dignity and pride, Issei ran down the hallway screaming in high pitch while the other two were closing from behind, yelling something that vaguely sounded like 'How dare you talk about Rias - senpai like that?"

Ah. At least this made my break entertaining.

*Scene Break*

"So why are we meeting at night again," I asked Sona. "And why are we at school?"

"Well," Sona began as she sat down at her spot. "The student council room is our 'base', the place where we discuss important matters. And for your first question," she paused a bit to take a sip from the tea that Tsubaki brewed, and with a satisfying sigh, she continued. "Even though you were incarnated into a devil few days ago, I'm sure you've noticed something different with your body," she supplied while eyeing both Illya and I.

"Eh? What do you mean by that?" Illya titled her head to the side and asked. I knitted my brows, not knowing what she was implying, but there were some drastic changes in my body, for instance, my left arm. If she was talking about the upgrades of our abilities, then I definitely felt the change when I traced Hrunting to kill the Fallen Angel. The amount of prana that required me to project the arrow-sword was close to none, but what shocked me the most was the fact that I had enough strength to fully draw the gigantic bow back. Using this as a reference, there was a high possibility that I could trace thousands of mundane or unnamed blades in a day with my surge of prana.

A sigh from Sona interrupted my thoughts, and this time it was my turn to crook my head to the side in confusion. "Do you not realize that you've become lazy in the morning and more energetic at night? Do you not realize that you can see clearly at night?" I had noticed the first change the day I had become a devil, but I simply thought that I was merely sleep deprived. However, I had no logical explanation for being hyperactive at night, which slowly turned me into a night owl, messing up my sleep schedule. To demonstrate her last point, she gestured Tsubaki to turn off the lights and to my surprise, Sona was right as I could clearly identify each and everyone of them. "And lastly, we devils can fly." My eyes widened at her bold proclamation. I definitely didn't see that one coming and as if reading my thoughts, Sona gave me a triumph smirk. "If you don't believe me, just look around you." Right on cue, everyone in the room, except for Illya and I, magically grew out a pair of bat wings simultaneously. Sona snapped her fingers at us, and we too, grew out our own pairs of wings.

"Ne, Onii-chan," Illya tugged my sleeves and said with widened eyes. "Does that mean we can actually fly?"

"Yes," Sona answered the shocked looking girl. Illya seemed to be overjoyed by the revelation that she could actually fly and was now clapping her hands and jumping up and down excitingly. "And one of the goals tonight is to teach you how to fly," Sona finished off cheerfully, but out of the corner of my eye, I caught a flash of mischievousness on her face even though it disappeared as fast as it appeared. Somehow, I had a really bad feeling about this.

"So what are the other things for today?" I asked, trying to change the subject for now. The thought of flying didn't bother me, but the weird face that Sona made was a bit unnerving. I decided to ignore it for now since I would eventually find out all of her devilish plans that were waiting for me. Besides, I could already imagine Rin's face at the discovery of my bat wings. First of all, she would not believe anything and would call me 'baka' many times, but the fun part was coming up next. After displaying my wings to her, she would definitely be taken aback, but the surprised look on her face would morph into the infamous 'Tohsaka Smile'. With her arms crossed and that scary smile of hers, she would twitch her eyebrows and ask something like, 'Emiya - kun, do you want to explain anything to me?'

"Hmm, let me see," I was grateful that Sona interrupted my thoughts. She scratched her chin in consideration and finally pointed a finger upwards. "Besides flying, I'm going to explain the devil's contract."

"Devil's contract?" I repeated, not sure what to make out of it. At the mention of the word 'contract', the Heaven's Feel ritual was the first thing that popped in my head. Generally speaking, it was a brutal war fought by seven Masters and Servants until one pair was left to claim the Holy Grail. The Grail was told to be able to grant any wish for the victorious pair, and if this so called 'devil's contract' has any similarity with that inhumane war…

"Ah," she began. "You basically grant your clients any wish." Her explanation caught me by surprised. but I still wasn't entirely sure what she meant as the phrase 'granting any wish' brought back some distasteful memories.

"What do you mean by that?" I furrowed my brows as I asked.

"This is a two part job," Sona explained. "First, you need to deliver these small sheets," she said while taking one out from her pocket to display it. Nothing special was on there except for a summoning circle, so I looked back at Sona with confusion. "You pass these out to people and they will use it to make a wish." This time, a let out an understanding 'ah' and pounded my fist into my palm.

"So I don't need to battle any superhumans or creatures?" I asked again to reassure myself. I had had enough with beings such as Servants, and the last thing I wanted to do was to get caught up in another meaningless war.

At my side, Saji jumped a little and pointed at me. "Why do you always want to fight? What is up with you and violence!"

"Yea, Emiya - kun. Is there a reason for that?" To my surprise, it was Tomoe who spoke up. She looked absolutely confused, and I could hear slight concern in her voice. Judging from each and everyone of their expressions, I highly doubt that anyone of them had witnessed death.

Since I couldn't really come up with a reasonable response for them to understand, mostly because it was from my personal experience, I decided to ignore their questions and focus back onto the topic of devil's contract. "And what is the second part of the job?"

Sona studied me a bit, trying to figure out an explanation for my abnormal way of thinking, "For the second part," she finally said. "Is to answer their calls and grant them their wishes."

I nodded in understanding, but another question came up. "What is the purpose of doing this?"

Sona shifted her glasses and took another sip from her cup. "This is some really nice tea Tsubaki," Sona complimented her queen, who responded by giving a small thankful nod. I narrowed my eyes slightly at the thought of this. Was this a challenge? I was very certain that my tea brewing skills were better, and Sona was welcome to try it at anytime. "Anyway," she cleared her throat, bringing me back to reality. "The ultimate goal is promotion." Before I could speak up to ask any question, she cut me off. "Everyone here is classified as low-class devils," she continued while gesturing all of us which they nodded in confirmation. "There are three more levels, which are middle-class devil, high-class devil, which is my rank, and ultimate - class devil."

"What is the point of ranking up?" I asked. "Does it grant you more power? Why are people so eager to go up a rank"

"Hmm," Sona hummed thoughtfully, trying to come up with an appropriate explanation. "Alright think of it this way," she began once she thought of an analogy for me. "The devils use the oligarchy system. The ranks do not reflect on personal strength, but status only. However, the four ultimate-class devils, or the Maous, are usually the strongest beings." So this was the motive to rank up, to reach higher status and become more influential. Devils that were at higher ranks no doubt received more resources and land from the government, which was a plus, but nothing came without a price.

For example, politics.

Who knew but maybe the higher ups were full of corrupted devils that only got their positions through bribes and family statuses. Politics involved a lot around the manipulation of general public and of course, blackmailing people that were in your way.

"And by doing the contracts, I can go from low-class to middle-class?" I shook off the thoughts and decided to focus on the current topic as I took a wild guess and judging by Sona's expression, I was correct.

"But that is not the only method to rank up." To my surprise, the usually quiet girl, Tsubaki, spoke up to add on to the conversation. "There are two other ways." At the side, Saji, Tomoe, Ruruko, and Tsubasa all made a surprised 'eh' sound, reminding me that the rook and the other pawn were in the room.

"What are the other ways, Kaichou?" Ruruko asked with a scrunched face while scratching her chin with one hand.

"Running contracts is the traditional way for promotion, and that is why I make you guys do it everyday," Sona explained while the rest of the peerage stared at their king in shock, but the expression was quickly replaced by a general look of understanding. "As for the other two options," she continued. "The first one is military accomplishments, and the other option is through the Rating Game," she concluded the three possible ways for promotion, and everyone in the room nodded slowly as they processed the information for themselves.

"So when can I get promoted to middle-class?" Saji asked with anticipation. "I've done so many already. How many more do I need to do?"

Taking another sip from the cup, Sona began, "Even though running contacts is the traditional way, it is also the slowest." At this, Saji's face dropped in despair as he sunk into his seat.

"So what is the exact number of contracts that I will need to do?" Saji asked weakly.

Sona rested her left arm under her right with a finger pointed upwards as she thought about the question. Finally coming into a conclusion, she gave Saji a sympathetic look. "I honestly have no idea," she confessed sheepishly. "But if you're lucky enough to have an influential or powerful human as your customer, then I suppose it will be faster." I watched as Saji sunk deeper into his chair, vaguely heard something sounded like 'my dream to become an ultimate devil and marry Kaichou is gone.'

"Why don't people use the second and third option?" I asked. Saji was definitely not the only reincarnated devil who wanted to get higher up into the ranking system. If contracting was the preferable way, then how many years or decades did it take for an average low - class to become a middle - class? Even though Sona said that serving influential people could speed up the process, the chances of being summoned by one was considered to be really low. "What does it mean by military accomplishments?"

"Just like it sounds," Sona explained. "Military accomplishment means to obtain great achievements in combat, such as war. This is the fastest method out of all three." At the mention of fastest method, Saji perked up again, eyes were once again burning with passion. "However, since the three factions are in truce, a war was unlikely to happen."

Just like that, Saji's dreams had been crushed yet again. Right at his side, Ruruko immediately latched onto Saji, and with a worried face, she asked, "Senpai! Are you ok? Do you need any help?"

"Don't worry Ruruko," I reassured the pawn, trying to contain my own laughter as well. "He just needs you to calm down. He would also prefer you to let go," I said while pointing at Saji. "You are strangling him." Somehow in that short amount of time, Ruruko managed to find herself a new seat where she abandoned the couch and was now on Saji's laps, shaking his body violently.

"Oh, right. Sorry Senpai," the pawn's face turned red as she realized her mistake and decided to apologize. Saji was either still shocked by Sona's revelation on promotion or was traumatized by Ruruko's assault because he only nodded at the brown haired girl.

"Anyway," I cleared my throat, deciding to bring us back on topic. "What about Rating Game?"

Shaking her head as she, too, was distracted by the scene in front of her, she answered, "Promotion through Rating Game is the modern way. It allows any reincarnated devil to have a chance to show off their skills in a match between two peerages."

"So this is the best method for ranking up?" I concluded while taking a glance at Saji. Instead of jumping up with excitement like previous times, he didn't move an inch from his seat. Maybe the boy finally realized that promotion was earned through hard work, and there was no such thing like shortcuts. Then a random thought shot up in my mind, and after a short pause, I asked, "And is this why you talk about Rating Games so much? Because you want to rank up?" I looked directly into her eyes, studying her intensely.

She looked back with a determined expression and answered with a flat tone. "Yes. I want to reach the top ten, and if possible, I want to become first." The words she delivered weren't empty and unrealistic. They were full of power and promises, and I knew that one day she would get there. It would take time, but she would be patient with it because in the end, she wanted to prove herself. I couldn't help but gave her a small approving smile.

Good. I like it. I like this ambition.

"Anyway," Sona began with a sly smile while eyeing Illya and I. "Let's teach you how to fly." At my side, Illya clapped happily, excited to learn this new maneuver, while the other members of the peerage gave me a sympathetic look. I suddenly remembered the flash of mischievousness on Sona's face from earlier. So the inevitable had come, but I mean what could be worse than fighting against Saber Alter, right?

*Scene Break*

"Ow," I winced as I attempted to sit down at my chair. Every single movement seemed to be too much for my current condition, even a small and simple task such as raising an arm pained my body.

"Onii-chan," Illya knitted her brows and asked with concern. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, yeah," I replied hastily while putting up a fake smile to hide my pain. "I feel great. Here, let me show you." To defend my own dignity, I picked up the tea that was brewed by Tsubaki in front of me and lifted to my mouth, but only to find that the content in the cup spilled all over my clothes. I gave out a heavy sigh and finally confessed, "I guess I'm not."

"I knew it," Illya declared while folding her arms under her chest. "Onii-chan can't lie to me!"

"Sorry about that," I apologized sheepishly while scratching the back of my head and then turned my attention to my drenched clothings, wondering how I could dry it. Sona seemed to notice my concerns when she gazed at me and with a snap, my clothes were back to normal. I gave her a thankful nod before remembering that the silver haired girl was teasing me. My embarrassed expression morphed into a skeptical one. "So Illya," I began. "You want to tell me why you're so good at it?"

"I don't know," Illya shrugged and stuck her tongue out childishly.

"Hmm," I hummed quietly, recalling the past events. After Sona explained the basics of devil's contract, we immediately started our first flying lesson. Truth be told, it wasn't as fun, but on the bright side, I finally discovered the true meaning behind that sly smile from earlier. Even with all the warnings I received from Tomoe and Ruruko, I still ended up face planting from the sky, bruising my body badly. I had been through many battles, so injuries such as bruises and small cuts didn't really bother me much. However, crashing on the same part of my body over countless times actually made my muscles ached, bringing back memories of the training sessions I had with Saber, and also making me regret to not reinforce my body beforehand. Illya must've gotten secret lessons with Sona when I wasn't around, since she was unharmed after the entire lesson. I didn't want to admit that I was inferior to my sister, but at the same time, learning this maneuver could be handy in the future. "So you do you want to tell me some tips and tricks?" I asked, trying not to sound desperate as I pleaded for an answer.

"Well," Sona began, "If you listened to me and don't freak out in the air, then you wouldn't have fallen like what, ten times?" I glanced away at her statement. While it was true that I was panicking in the air, but in my defense, it was quite scary up there and controlling my new wings was like getting used to a third limb. "Next time try to relax your muscles and feel it with your own body," she suggested to me, and at the side, Illya nodded with agreement while making a 'Hmm, Hmm' noise.

"You said that like ten times, too," I pointed out dryly. "And I don't think that advice is really good."

Sona shrugged and replied, "Well, that's the only suggestion I got. I guess you just need some time."

"It's ok Shirou," at the side, Tomoe chimed in. "If I remember correctly," she began with a mischievous smile and leaned in. "Saji took almost a month to learn how to fly," she whispered into my ears, but unfortunately for her, she wasn't able to contain her voice for the last part as she bursted into laughter, leaving an embarrassed and fuming Saji staring at her. Once she realized that her voice was louder than she intended to be, she gave Saji a sheepish grin and said, "Heh sorry about that Saji - kun. I was trying to use your experiences to cheer Shirou up." Saji gave a 'hmph' and turned his head to the side. "But yea, it doesn't mean that you will never get it. Just practice more and be patient," she assured me and I gave her a small nod.

"So what else is there for tonight besides this?" I turned my attention to Sona and asked. "Is it the devil's contrasts?"

With a nod, she confirmed my guess and began, "Well, at least that's what I planned. but," she paused a little and gave me a look of disappointment before continuing. "But I didn't know that you will take up most of the night. I mean look at Illya." The girl perked up at the mention of her name and just like Sona, she shot me a disapproving look. "She got it down after like five tries."

"Not everyone can be good at everything," I protested, trying my best to defend for myself. "Anyway, so what are we going to do now?" I asked, immediately changing the subject, hoping they would stop mocking my inability to fly. At least their level of teasing wasn't as advanced as Rin's. They should see that magus in action, and they would understand their differences in skill levels. Basically, once Rin figured out your weakness, she would launch an endless assault to exploit it until you beg for mercy. On a good day, she would stop, but on a bad day, begging for mercy or not, she would continue until she felt satisfied then maybe the torture would come to a stop.

"Since we don't have much time, " Sona declared while looking at the clock in the room. "You can start passing these out tomorrow," she told us while handing taking out the small sheets of paper she showed earlier. "Originally, I wanted the process to start today, but I guess not." I took a small stack from her and studied them a bit before placing the contracts in my pocket.

"So is that it?" I asked as I attempted to stand up from my chair but my legs betrayed me as I flopped right back down. I had fought and survived many battles against stronger foes and beings such as Servants, yet a simple task like flying exhausted my body, and the only thing I wanted to do now was go home and rest. Thankfully, Sona nodded at my question, and I had to let out a sigh of relief to release the breath that I was apparently holding.

Sensing that my legs could finally be functionable again, I took a deep breath, readying myself for another fall, and got up to my feet again. Illya followed closely behind as I made my way to the door, but before I could exit out of the room, a voice spoke up from behind. "Ah before you go," Sona began. "Remember to return here tomorrow!" I suppressed a sigh and lazily waved back before stepping into the night with Illya.

After a brief silence, Illya tugged my sleeves and spoke up. "Ne onii-chan," she frowned and spoke up. "Who is this Rias? She sounds like a really bad person, just like ..." she paused a bit and looked down.

"Just like what?" I softly asked, but had a good idea of who she was referring to.

"Never mind," Illya shook her head and declared. "There won't be anyone as bad as him, right onii-chan?" she asked for reassurance. I gave her a warm smile and nodded my head at that. There were many similarities between the two as both of them were extremely manipulative, and I could only hope that she doesn't become anything like _him_ in the end.

*Scene Break* (not done with dream cycle)

" _There are enemy Servants nearby, Master," the man informed the girl with twin ponytails._

 _With a nod of acknowledgement, she simply replied, "We should go check it out then."_

 _Without another word, the man lifted the girl up and took off, jumping from buildings to buildings, heading to the location where he sensed prana. With his enhanced eyesight granted by his class, he was able to identify two potential enemies that were currently battling as the duo approached from the sky._

 _Landing on the ground with a swift but silent motion, he put his Master down and addressed her dutifully, "We will wait here for now. Let the two Servants fight it out first."_

 _After a brief moment, a shadow leaped out from the court and jumped to a building close by before disappearing into the dark. It was silent again. No sounds of weapons clashing or battle cries._

" _Let's go check it out," the girl decided and she began walking._

" _Wai-" Before the man could finish his warning, he leaped forward and placed himself in front of his Master with a sword in his hand. He had to be careful here. The newcomer in front of him was definitely a Servant as he could feel a large amount of prana emitting. She had green eyes with hair braided up and was wearing a blue and white armor. The invisible weapon she was holding could be anything ranging from a sword to a lance and to a battle axe. That was her advantage, and he knew it._

 _Then she charged._

 _She closed in with incredible speed, but was still manageable to him at this point. With a powerful swing aiming to cut from his shoulder to thigh, he could only leap back defensively since he wasn't sure about the length of her weapon to properly come up with a suitable defensive measure._

 _The Servant in front of him continued to pursue and adding more force after each attack, but her form and footing were firm. At this rate, he would definitely lose and his Master would be in danger next._

 _But an unexpected thing happened._

" _Saber," the boy with red hair commanded. "Stop attacking!" Accident or not, the boy just used a command seal to stop his Servant from slaying him. "Can you first tell me what's going on?"_

 _With a small laugh the girl spoke up, "Oh my. So you're a Master too, Emiya-kun."_


End file.
